


oh, and what was in our eyes

by nausicaa_of_phaeacia



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: Baby Deer Has It Bad for Superhero, Coulson's sleeves, Daisy's huge crush on Coulson, F/M, Gen, Post Episode: s03e12 The Inside Man, Pre-Civil War (Marvel), Registration Act
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-22
Updated: 2016-03-22
Packaged: 2018-05-28 10:17:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 991
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6325099
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nausicaa_of_phaeacia/pseuds/nausicaa_of_phaeacia
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Coulson and Daisy in his office, going through paperwork.</p>
            </blockquote>





	oh, and what was in our eyes

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Skyepilot](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Skyepilot/gifts).



> Not exactly shippy, but you know what this is about.  
> For Skyepilot because of a tumblr comment.

They’ve been sitting in his office for hours and hours, which, due to recent events, has become a truly rare thing. It’s not really unfamiliar, it’s just a little weird to sift through tons and tons of paperwork with a very frustrated-looking Coulson while trying not to make things worse by attempting to lighten the mood.

It’s probably her fault; it’s taken Coulson months to clear his name from Malick’s accusations, despite the fact that Maria’s been working her hardest to set all possible favours in motion, and in the meantime, the president’s passed the Registration Act for “aliens”. Daisy feels like she could have intervened, should have been present when Coulson went undercover with Talbot. May tells her, very decidedly, that she couldn’t have known, but this is the way things are now: illogical, half-legal and oppressive, and it feels like the evil things that she’s been fighting against for the past ten years have all come back at the same time.

Worst of all, even though Malick’s not in the game anymore and Hive’s been returned to Maveth with the fearless help of Mack, many of his minions still are, and to be honest, Daisy’s pretty much just waiting for an eighth HYDRA to pop up. It doesn’t take much imagination, after all; HYDRA’s been in the business for more than seventy years, they should know how to hide (Yo-Yo tells her Brazil hasn’t been the post-war Nazi groups’ only South American go-to hiding country).

“You look glum,” he says.  
It makes her smile a little bit.  
“I guess I am.”  
“Sorry.”  
“No, that’s okay, I mean, why would it be your fault?”  
“I let this happen to you.” His pencil breaks in his hand. “I should have known Talbot was being used, I could have prevented Malick from dragging my name through the mud, and none of this would have happened. I should have revealed Malick’s association with HYDRA as soon as I could, discredited him. They believed him and here we are with this farce of a new law.”  
“What about me though?”  
“Yes, I -”  
“No, I mean – what about me? I should have been there. I let him ridicule you, slander you. They – No one should ever even think of associating you with HYDRA. They should have known better. I should have been there.”  
“I couldn’t let that happen. You needed to be protected.”  
“You needed to be protected, too.”  
He tries to smile, and it looks grateful.

They return to the paper stacks.  
“You know, I – I don’t even know where to start. It’s – We shouldn’t be - _You_ shouldn’t have to go through all that.”  
“I can take it, Coulson. I’ve had worse. And so have you.”  
There it is, his smile.  
“And it should be obvious that I’m all behind your decision to keep S.H.I.E.L.D. policy the way it is. I mean, thank you. It’s just that –”  
“Registering you as a government official is still registration.”  
“Yeah.”  
“I know, it’s just – I thought that –”  
“I know it’s not the same. You’re buying us time to disappear.”  
“Yes. This is just a prelude, Daisy. They are going to extend this. I’ve recently heard from Natasha and –”  
“You mean Romanov?”  
“Natasha. Yeah. There have been rumors, and it’s – yeah. You know.”  
“Registration for everyone who’s not ‘normal’.”  
“Exactly.”

With an audible sigh, he rolls up his sleeves, runs a hand over his hair. He looks tired. These past few months have been particularly hard on him, for obvious reasons, but it’s not just that. Going from a company man to a dead man to a conscientious leader to an invalid (his words) to a murderer to an alleged head of HYDRA, that’s – it’s quite a lot to take in. And it – he doesn’t look like he’s quite done processing it. Okay, obviously, he’s sort of fine and functioning and sane, she wouldn’t dare to doubt that, but he’s not okay. At least, he seems to have more or less accepted this model as something that’s good enough to fool uninformed civilians.

Sure, she would always be able to tell it apart from a real hand; after all, she’s spent _some_ time with him, so yeah. But this one’s pretty close, actually; since Fitz has left and Coulson’s being advised by Dr Cho, the prosthetic models have been getting better and better very rapidly. He seems to be staying with this one, though; it resembles his right hand so much that one would have to look really closely to detect anything remotely out of place; actually, you can’t even see a seam where it’s attached right now.

“Sorry,” Coulson mumbles, starts rolling down his left sleeve. It takes Daisy a moment to understand what just happened.  
“What, no, Coulson, _sorry,_ I was just – leave it. I was just thinking how –”  
“I didn’t think. I’m sorry.”  
“Rolled-up sleeves look good on you.” There you have it, _great job, Daisy_.  
“You don’t have to –”  
“I’m _not_.”  
“Okay.” She doesn’t think she’s ever heard Coulson talk so low, at least not outside of a mission. He just leaves the sleeve where it is, rolled up a little but not all the way up to his elbow.

Leaving the office for the night, she wants to turn back at the door to get her phone, forgotten on the table, but sees Coulson smile as he rolls his left sleeve up again, and she tiptoes all the way over to her bunk. 

When they run into each other in the kitchen the next morning to get some coffee before the paperwork, his sleeves are up. The shirt actually goes very well with his eyes, and as they’re turning to the door, she can’t resist pushing the left sleeve a bit more towards his elbow.  
“It came down a little,” she smiles, and the coy happiness in his eyes is the best thing she’s seen in a while.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks so much for reading. Tell me what you think! :)
> 
> Title's taken from Morrissey's _Billy Budd_.


End file.
